“Avoid what is forbidden, and you will be the most devout of people. Be content with what Allah has apportioned for you, and you will be the richest of people. Treat your neighbour kindly, and you will be a believer. Love for others what you love for yourself, and you will be a Muslim. Do not laugh excessively, for excessive laughter deadens the heart.”

It was reported by al-Tirmidhī (2/50), Aḥmad (2/310), and al-Kharāʾiṭī in Makārim al-Akhlāq (p. 42), through Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, from Abū Ṭāriq, from al-Ḥasan, from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet. Al-Tirmidhī said: “It is a singular hadith, and al-Ḥasan did not hear anything from Abū Hurayrah.”

I say: The correct view is that he did hear from him in general, as al-Ḥāfiẓ explained in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb. However, al-Ḥasan practised tadlīs; therefore, a report transmitted by him with an ambiguous “from” formula cannot be used as evidence, as in this hadith.

Moreover, it has another hidden defect: the unknown status of this Abū Ṭāriq. Al-Dhahabī said: “He is unknown.”

However, the hadith has another route from Abū Hurayrah. Al-Mundhirī (3/237) said: “Al-Bazzār and al-Bayhaqī, in the book al-Zuhd, reported it from Makḥūl, from Wāthilah, from him. Makḥūl heard from Wāthilah, as al-Tirmidhī and others stated, but the rest of its chain contains weak narrators.”

I say: By this route, al-Kharāʾiṭī also reported it through another chain from Makḥūl, with the wording: “Be scrupulous, and you will be the most devout of people; be content, and you will be the most grateful of people; love for others what you love for yourself, and you will be a believer; and be a good neighbour to those who live near you, and you will be a Muslim.” Al-Kharāʾiṭī reported it (p. 39), saying: Nasr ibn Dāwūd al-Ṣāghānī related to us: Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī related to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā related to us, from Abū Rajāʾ, from Burd ibn Sinān, from Makḥūl, from Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ, from Abū Hurayrah.